Founder and Executive Director of Power the Future - Daniel Turner

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the nationally syndicated Energy Mix Radio Show produced
by the Energy Network Media Group. The Energy Mix Radio
Show will give you an inside look at the energy
industry and how it affects you by talking with industry leaders, experts,
and government officials on the Energy Mix Radio Show.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Welcome to the Energy Mix Radio Show, where we dive
deep into the world of energy, it's challenges, opportunities, and
people shaping the future today. We are thrilled to have
a very special guest back on the show, Daniel Turner,
who is the founder and executive director for Power of
the Future. Daniel is a passionate advocate for American energy

(00:37):
workers and a leading voice on fighting for energy and dependence.
So from rare earth minerals to national security, Daniel has
been at the forefront of critical conversations that impact not
just the energy sector, but also the very foundation of
our economy and survival. So together, I plan on asking
him to help me explore some pressing issues that the

(00:58):
energy industry is facing today and then covering the solutions
that can empower America to lead the way. Daniel, Welcome
back to the Energy Mix Radio Show.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
Thank it's great to be on with you again, So
you know, we are.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Getting ready to hit a milestone, if you will. It's
going to be the first hundred days of Trump being
in office, and there's been a lot of action that's happened.
It's really hard to keep up with everything. It's a wonder.
It's amazing does he sleep at night? But I have
to say I have not seen such a great team
that I can remember when we look at all the

(01:33):
people he has in office, from Mark Rubio to Pam
Bondy to Chris Wright, CEO of Liberty Energy, well until
he became Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of Interior Bergham.
He's got some solid people, Elon Muss and Doge. This
is just an amazing thing that I think the American
people are having a hard time. It's almost like we

(01:54):
have whiplash, like what is happening. He's like Superman flying
around the world, him and his team setting the course
straight again if how messed up things have really been
to I don't think the American people really understood. What
is your thoughts on his first hundred days?

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Yeah, when it comes to energy in particular, he's assembled
a pretty serious team. And look, if you're going to
make an energy position, and I know we'll get into
this store in the course of this conversation. If you're
going to take an energy position like the team Biden did,
we need to go green, we need to expand renewables,

(02:31):
well then there are policy prescriptions that have to follow.
If you're going to go green, you need more solar
and more wind, and you need the raw materials and
the rare earths for wind and solar. And none of
that came from the Biden administration. So you've got these
blanket statements, but then none of the serious action. The
things that are not fun and sexy, they don't make

(02:51):
the news. It's just the hard work that has to
be done. It's the same as saying we should plant
the garden. Well, someone's got to get their hands dirty.
And the Biden administration like to say, let's plant the garden,
but no one would go into the damn backyard and
start digging. And so when I look at the Trump administration,
they say drill, baby drill. That's great on the campaign trail,

(03:14):
But now that he has power, he's assembled a serious
team that's saying, how do we drill, baby drill? What
do we need in permitting reform, What do we need
in regulatory and reform? What do we need in financing reform?
Because you know, a lot of the industry requires financing
to invest in these infrastructure projects of wind, solar or offshore,

(03:37):
sorry of oil gas or offshore, or pipelines or et cetera,
et cetera. So he's assembled a serious team that takes
a position drill baby drill, and says, what do we
need to do? How do we get our hands dirty
to actually put this into practice? And that's the difference.
It's adulting, it's being serious. You can agree with it,

(03:58):
disagree with it, and that's it's a fun conversation to have.
But no one can disagree that they don't take the
mandate seriously and they're doing the hard work to accomplish it.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
So how would you write from A to F. We
all remember when we were in school, his scorecard for
the first one hundred days, when we specifically talk about energy,
what grade would you give the Trump administration?

Speaker 3 (04:21):
They're definitely A. And the only reason why they're not
in an A plus is because it's only been ninety
some days. I know the administration has been one hundred,
but a lot of these cabinet secretaries didn't come on
for a couple of days, and so it is an
a without a doubt, and the hard work that is
left to do, they're still going to do. People are saying,
when is he going to x y z. It's been

(04:44):
one hundred days, right, Like these things do take a
little while. This aircraft carrier has been going in this
direction for four years to turn. It is going to
happen gradually and slowly, but it is turning, and those
are things to be optimistic about.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
So set up and explain to our listeners. Today's show
is going to talk a lot about rare earth minerals
and how they apply into the tariffs that we're experiencing
with the Trope administration. First of all, set up for
our listeners when we talk about rare earth minerals, there's
quite a few of them, the importance in the energy

(05:20):
sector and then of course to us all so the
listeners have an understanding before we get into China's suspension
of these rare earth minerals. What are these rare earth
minerals For the listeners.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
Sure, rare earths are I believe nineteen metals and minerals
and The reason why they're called rare earth is because
not because they're necessarily rare. They are found in abundance,
but they're found as derivatives or as extracts of other mining. Right,
So if you have a gold mine, you're not going
to have a mind for rare earths. You're going to

(05:54):
have other mining. And in the process of mining gold
or copper, or zinc or lead or cold even you
extract in trace amounts these rare earths that when in
the aggregate, when accumulated all together, become quite abundant. And
so if you open up your phone, if you open
up your I mean don't, you'll break it. But if
you were to open up your phone, or your computer,

(06:15):
or your smart TV, your smart tablet, all of these
modern technologies, these motherboards, these these circuit boards have trace
amounts of these rare earths. They're also found in a
lot of military equipment. They're found in jets, but they're
also found in huge demand in evs, in batteries, and

(06:37):
in wind and solar And that is the direction, there's
no doubt about it. The economy is going in a
technological direction. Right. We keep talking about data centers for
artificial intelligence and for et cetera. These data centers that
we're building left and right will require more and more
rare earths for the computer circuits. You know, the more

(07:00):
we use computers or the more just modern technology requires
more rare earths. So, as I said earlier, you would
think then the getting your hands dirty. You would say, well,
if we're going to be building all of these modern technologies,
then we need to start finding more rare earths. But
this is the stupidity of the previous administration and past administrations,

(07:22):
the very green requirements that say we need rare earths
for wind and solar. Okay, well let's dig for them
in Utah. Now you can't do that. Why not, Well
because of climate change. And you say, but climate change
is why we're digging for the rare earths. Yes we are,
but you can't dig in Utah. Climate change. And so
we're finding these rare earths in other countries, and at

(07:42):
the benefit, at the sacrifice of American opportunism, we have
these minerals and metals here in America. We have them
everywhere in Alaska and in huge quantities in Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado,
New Mexico, California. We should be mining them here in America,
but the very green policies that require rare earths have

(08:06):
thwarted the opportunity to find those rare earths in America.
And it shows just the insanity of the climate agenda when.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
I applied, and I want you to drip down a
little bit more because that was a great word, insanity.
The insanity is, so let's go and have another country
who has absolutely typically no regulatory oversight to do anything
green in any way to benefit the planet. Right, But
yet they can dig or you know, pull up these

(08:36):
rare earth minerals and ship them to us. Some countries
are participating in child labor just to produce this. But
yet last I checked, Daniel, we live on one planet.
So if China is blowing and going of doing this
plus two or three cold plants a week, how does

(08:58):
that benefit the whole you know, climate change agenda or discussion,
It makes no.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
Sense exactly, And insanity is the only word to apply this.
If you say, well, we need to mine this metal
for what X purpose, but we're not going to do
it in America because of climate change. We're going to
allow it to happen in the developing world where they
do use slave and child labor, where there is no OSHA,

(09:27):
there are no labor standards or labor unions. There's no
need to give out safety goggles and hard hats and
protective equipment. Right, there's no need to have training and
safety monitors. If anyone's been on a work site, not
even mining or oil and gas, if they've been in
a factory floor, they know there are the emergency captains

(09:50):
and the muster locations in case of a and attendance
is taken. All the prescriptions we do to keep our
workers safe and to protect groundwater contamination and air contamination,
all of that has gone in the Third world. And
that's why the corporatism, corporate corporists, as a general rule,

(10:11):
that's why they like to mine in the third world.
Why would you want to mind copper in Alaska where
you're gonna have to have all of these prescriptions that
could raise the cost when you can mind copper very
cheaply in some Saharan Africa. And if you use nine
year old girls, and if you pollute a river, no
one cares. No one's gonna come after you. Greta Thunberg

(10:33):
isn't gonna mobilize. The UN isn't gonna go John Carrey
is not gonna.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
Go corporation for not having those safety standards because they
don't exist like they do in the United States.

Speaker 3 (10:44):
Absolutely, So you pay off the local warlord, you pay
off the local tribal leaders, and then you you you
literally rape and destroy that country and its people, and
you just call it being green. We didn't open up
but copper mine in Utah because of climate change, and
you say, but don't you realize the group And this

(11:06):
is where why I started Power the Future, because the
climate groups aren't just misanthropic, They're not just they're not
just ideologically confused. They're genuinely evil. Because it is evil
to take the money of groups that say, hey, we're
gonna fund you to stop this coal mine in Utah.

(11:27):
But the reason why we're doing that is because we
operate a mine in the Congo and we want that
child labor, we want that air and groundwater pollution because
our profit margins are through the damn roof and we
love it. We love the fact that we can make
as much money. We don't care about the children, we
don't care about the earth. We care about the money

(11:49):
and they fund these climate groups. They we're doing this
for climate change and it's genuinely evil.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
Well, you know, it's also something to think about as
we head in to break. Two things that come to
my mind. Who follows the money of who gives these
organizations the funding to basically fight us to keep it
in the ground. And a lot of times when you
follow the money, it's coming from outside of the United States,
potentially from countries that it is in their best interests

(12:18):
to have us keep it in the ground and have
them dig. As you said, it should remind us we
shouldn't forget. We just had COVID and what we learned
there was that we had outsourced everything to China, from
protective gear to even the prescriptions that we needed, and
we could be facing the same thing. I want to
get back from break and ask you when we come

(12:38):
back from break, are we facing the same thing in
some ways when we look at these rare earth minerals.
If the United States wants to stay competitive and be
ahead of everybody else, we need those. Because you mentioned
the tablets, the TVs, everything that we are importing, we
still need them here. So let's take a quick break
you're listening to the Energy Mixed radio show, and we'll
be right back, and we're back. You're listening to the

(13:03):
Energy Mix radio show. My guest today is Daniel Turner,
who is the founder and executive director of Power of
the Future. Daniel, last segment, we discuss the importance of
what is these rare earth minerals? How do we use them?
And we probably droll down a little bit more than
we should have or what I wanted to, like, what
are the problems in the way of bringing in This

(13:25):
is kind of on a dark side when you look
at you know why we're not producing our own rare
earth minerals. I think that the Trump administration obviously understands
the problem. We learned something from COVID about how we
need not be dependent on other countries or really anything

(13:46):
for basic survival, and this would be another one that
we need for basic survival. If you have a strong
energy platform, you know you should. We should because it
also correlates back to it's a matter of national security.
So let's talk a little bit about set it up
for me. I want to come back from did we
learn anything these rare earth minerals? You told us about it?

(14:08):
What is the biggest problem that you see when we
talk about China and how they are dealing without with
rare earth minerals pertaining to us and the terroiffs. Can
you set this up for the listeners to understand what's
the problem right now with China's suspension.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
Sure, it's a great question. Yeah, it's a great question.
And it is a dark issue. I'm so happy you
use that word, because these are not light hearted. Ah
we just love the earth, right these are very dark.
It's getting into the ugly side of climate.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
Move to dig and they're out there all day long,
and we're over here importing that here in the United States,
we no parent listening to the show, your grandparent would
ever consider having their three or four year old child
or grandchild digging in the ground with unbearable conditions. Ever,
And yet this is what's happening to get these rare earth.

Speaker 3 (15:05):
It is. And so look at all the pressure on
President Trump when it comes to the tariffs. The ex
leader is out on social media saying that we need
to stop these tariffs because blah blah blah. They want
to stop the tariffs because they like using nine year
old girls to make their sneakers right, they like using
child and slave labor in China to make their products

(15:25):
because their margins are a lot better. There is no
doubt onboarding these these materials, these whether it's manufacturing, whether
it's rare earth mining, there is no doubt prices will
go up. But we're also x and we can argue
about whether or not it will be good for the
economy overall. I think it will because we also you

(15:45):
have to defend shipping lanes because we're mining these products overseas,
and we have to defend against pirates and sea lanes.
But that's a whole larger macro conversation. On the short term,
people will say, those going to make those products expensive,
and I'll argue, yes, they are, But why are we outsourcing?

(16:06):
Why are we not outsourcing our values? And if we
say it's wrong to employ children, if we say it's
wrong to poison groundwater in America, why are we Okay,
that are the countries doing it? And you're right, we
do live on one planet. If it's a global problem,
then we have to be really concerned that we're allowing
China to pollute two times the world emissions is generated

(16:28):
from who's talking about that.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
If these companies are so concerned in these organizations, and
you rarely hear it, let me bring you in in
China's suspension of rare earth minerals they're exports. It has
exposed us to the vulnerability in the Americans fly chain
right and the importance of that which you mentioned a

(16:51):
little bit earlier. My question to you is, how do
we in the US reduce first of all, the dependencies
on these foreign nations for these very important critical minerals.
What is the solution.

Speaker 3 (17:04):
Well, the solution is to mine them here in America,
and we know exactly how to do it and where
to do it. It's the speed that the Trump administration
put forward, especially its recent Executive Order on Critical Mining,
to allow this to happen. And those minds are going
to come online, but it is going to take some time.
So we have this delta period that we are in

(17:27):
precarious shape. We can't get from China now they've threatened
that they're going to stop exports, but we need to
get them from somewhere. So how do we make trade
relations with those countries directly where the mining happens. They're
controlled by China, but the countries you know, how do
we enter into a partnership with them? Specifically, President Trump
keeps talking about Greenland. I think that he sees that

(17:50):
as part of the solution as as well. Absolutely Ukraine,
so other countries where these mines and operate and where
we have these metal and these minerals. Is a short
term solution until all those minds can happen here. It
can be open here in America. But the longest term
is looking at our economy overall and saying what do

(18:12):
we need these metals and minerals for and how vital
are they to the economy. I would argue that wind
and solar should just be eliminated completely. I don't. They
have caused nothing but economic chaos and grid chaos where
they've been applied, and they haven't been a benefit at all.
They've been an enormous suck of tax dollars for the

(18:36):
little bit of value they get has not been worth
the tremendous cost and the whole we are in economically
to sustain these two technologies. They use huge amounts of
rare earths. I would just cancel them flat out. But
that is that's maybe why I didn't give the Trump
administration an A plus, although President Trump did cancel a

(18:56):
large offshore wind farm in New England, which is a
great start I would have. I would stop the permitting
for any one of these projects privately, do what you want.
You want to put up a wind turbine on your farm.
I have solar gates on my farm, right, I have
a commercial sheep farm. I have a lot of solar gates.

(19:17):
You know, if you want to use them, go nuts.
But to think we're going to sustain our economy and
municipalities with wind and solar at the cost that they are,
that we've been wasting. That nonsense has to come to
an end, and the sooner it does, the better off
we are.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
Let's switch gears and talk about the Biden administration, who
faced criticism for shutting down the domestic mining projects, particularly
in Alaska. And I'm going to get into the Alaskas
governor governor a little bit later on in the show.
But how in what steps should be taken to reverse
these policies and invest in America's resources? And I mean,

(19:56):
obviously you just made a comment about we should shut
all this down, and what do you see the Trump
President Trump and his administration, where are they are they
still embracing all forms of energy and all the above.
I hear a lot of that. So where do you
think they Where do you think these resources and the
policies to invest in America resources? Where do you see

(20:18):
us going? Well?

Speaker 3 (20:19):
I thought the executive action recently on coal was a
big one, and that reverses a lot of what the
Biden administration did. And it authorizes the reopening of some
one hundred coal plants that were shuttered because we need
baseline power in this country. Just a couple of days ago,
all of Spain and Portugal. Yes, yes, I've heard about that,

(20:41):
both countries.

Speaker 2 (20:41):
Hang on a second, Daniel, I'm on a hard break.
Let's take a quick break. You're listening to the Energy
Mixed radio show. We'll be right back.

Speaker 4 (20:49):
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(21:11):
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Speaker 2 (21:18):
RG and we're back. You're listening to the Energy Mix
radio show. My guest today is Daniel Turner, who is
the founder and executive director for Our Power of the Future. Daniel,
we were talking about how to reverse the Biden administration
when they know they had a lot of criticism for
shutting down domestic mining, particularly. We talk about Alaska, and

(21:41):
I asked you, what should we be doing to reverse
this and invest in America's resources. You've flicked it and
said that, you know, we need to look at other countries.
One of them specifically. You mentioned Spain and Portugal as
having blackouts. What happened there?

Speaker 3 (21:59):
Yeah, their entire grid collapsed two days ago, plunging the
entire Iberian Peninsula in darkness, both countries.

Speaker 2 (22:08):
That is a very scary thought, the whole entire.

Speaker 5 (22:11):
Yeah, let me tell the listeners really scary things, like
if mom was on a ventilator fighting for her life,
the entire country goes out.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
Mom's not here anymore. This is serious. Give us a
few examples of what happens when a country loses power entirely.

Speaker 3 (22:30):
How many thousands of people were in an elevator at
that age, right, I mean not just not just one
or thousands of people in element. Madrid is a pretty
big city. Lisbon's a pretty big city. How many thousands
of people were on trains that just stopped on the track?

Speaker 2 (22:45):
Right?

Speaker 3 (22:45):
Imagine if you're on Amtrak and the train just dies.
Now you're stranding in the middle of not to.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
Mention this year, no rights over people on basic survival
of you know, do we have enough food? Our food
is going bad? To refrigerator is is offline and not cooling?
What are you doing?

Speaker 3 (23:03):
A subject, even if you weren't stranded somewhere now, all right,
so you're in a Madrid apartment and you say, wow,
this is really bad. Let me just run to the store.
The electric doors do they open? No? So you push
them open, you go inside. I'm going to buy a
couple of things to work. Payments don't work, cash don't work. No,

(23:26):
So so now what do you do? So what do
you do? If you own the store? You close the
doors and you pray your food doesn't rot because you
can't process any pain the whole country. Right, this should
have been worldwide news. It should have been scary news
in America because this.

Speaker 5 (23:40):
Is why the basic load money out either because that
also is offline.

Speaker 3 (23:46):
Yeah, keep doing. Chris Wright, the Energy Secretary, was asked
about this and he had a great line which I
put on social media. He said, when you hit you wag,
when you hitch your wagon to the weather, right, you're
gambling quite a lot. And that's exactly it, you know.
And now the Spanish authorities would say, well, no one
could have predicted that the wind would stop blowing country wide, exactly,

(24:11):
no one could have predicted.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
Flying on the unliable as a country.

Speaker 6 (24:18):
They go scout, this is this is not complicated stuff.
And yet these are the people who who risk our
lives and the well being of our country because of
their agenda. And you can't predict the wind in five minutes.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
Includes so drastic that you're literally taking you and your
family's live into peril by just even wanting to do this,
like anything that could happen, which it showed Spad in Portugal.
And now what are you going to do? And what
if it only lasted two days? What if it lasted
a week? How nobody knows how to survive? And like this,

(25:02):
we're all used to our air conditioners, our heaters, our refrigerators.
It's shocking, shocked.

Speaker 6 (25:12):
It is.

Speaker 3 (25:13):
And Biden had four years of a green agenda. Now
we didn't have something as tragic as that. Knock wood,
but knock wood or thank god, is not the way
to run a country, right. We cannot have fingers crossed
policy prescriptions, and that's what Biden did. So thank god
nothing that tragic happened. But what did happen? Well, our
utility rates went up forty percent nationwide on average and

(25:37):
they have not come back down. This is the new
normal what we pay for electricity. If you remember in
the one debate between former President Trump at the time
and current Vice President Harris at the time, she bragged
that we've invested a trillion dollars in the green economy.
How did that work?

Speaker 2 (25:56):
Right?

Speaker 3 (25:56):
Where did the trillion dollars go? A lot of it
went to China. We've put up wind and solar. But
did it work in terms of a reliability of the
grid and costs for the consumer? And the answer is no,
So what did it do? It gave us the opportunity
as a country to say, look, how virtuous we are.
We've invested a trillion dollars in wind and solar, and

(26:18):
that's what Spain, in all of Europe has been doing.
Their electricity prices are absolutely through the roof, but they
get to say, but we're investing in going green, and
that is enough for them. And if you are some
sort of neopagan, neo Marxist, that is a victory. But
if you're a regular American trying to survive, that is

(26:39):
not a victory. That is misery. And we have to
stop misery from being flicked on all Maran.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
We just have to think about we like our new
cell phones and our modern technology TVs are what a
large TV is like two hundred and ninety nine dollars.
Imagine what that's going to shoot up to if this
war keeps going on with rare earth minerals and we
don't have access to because they're going to be categorized
by what needs it the most, and the TV isn't

(27:05):
going to need it the most if we're going to
be looking at even importing them. Here, let's take a
quick break. When we return, I want to switch gears
and talk about the Governor of Alaska, Mike Dunlevy. You're
listening to the Energy Mix Radio show. We'll be right back,
and we're back. You're listening to the Energy Mix radio show.
My guest today is Daniel Turner, who is the founder

(27:27):
and executive director of Power of the Future. Daniel, we
were discussing a lot about the rare earthmun rules, how
they can potentially affect us here. Thank you for sharing
with us and bringing it to light that Spain and
Portugal went offline for two days entirely, the whole countries
went black. That being said, I want to bring it
back to home. Alaska Governor Mike Dunledy. I recently caught

(27:52):
up with him and interviewed to him at Sarah Week,
which is about a couple maybe two months ago. He
was really excited about the things that were happening. He
was able to start working with the new Trump administration.
And my question is he's received a lot of praise
for his leadership and when we talk about the energy

(28:12):
needs in Alaska, but what lessons can other states learn
from Alaska's approach to energy independence, because this guy seems
serious about getting Alaska back on track and rather we're
talking about the federal land permitting that was not happening
under the Biden administration. I mean, tell us what has
happened in Alaska, how to flip flop within one hundred days,

(28:35):
and what can other areas learn other states.

Speaker 3 (28:39):
Govina Dunlevy's a true energy champion, and Alaska is lucky
to have someone who loves their state as much as
he loves the state of Alaska. During the Biden administration,
there were some sixty five executive orders directly targeting Alaska.
And if you recall, on day one of the Trump administration,
there was an executive order just about Alaska, the first

(29:01):
time a state got its own executive order on day one,
and that was to reverse a lot of what Biden did.
Americans sometimes see Alaska as this big national park. They'll
take a cruise, they'll go look at glaciers. They'll be
told that climate change is killing everybody, and then they'll say,
we have to protect Alaska, and then they'll leave. But

(29:22):
if you've been there, and I go there often, and
I know the state very well, Alaskans know their state
and love their state more than any outsider will. And
they want to develop oil, gas, coal, natural resources, rare earths.
They know how to do it responsibly, and they have
such an abundance of them that Alaska really should be

(29:43):
the most prosperous state in the country if it were
allowed to operate fully, but it is always targeted by
the environmental left. I think they realized that if Alaska
did operate to its full potential, other states would want
to follow suit. So it's almost like you have to
keep Alaska dependent on the federal government. You have to
keep Alaska from developing fully because it may start this

(30:07):
revolution God forbid nationwide that other states start developing their
natural resources. So Dunleavy's been a champion for the state
and he sees this as a rare opportunity with the
Trump administration to have the state grow as prosperous as possible.
So Alaska's got a really exciting thing.

Speaker 2 (30:23):
You know, he's very sharp, he gets it. And there's
another person, not a governor, but a congressman that brings
to mind. You know, it's amazing to see if you
get in the right place with this administration, you can
truly change an outcome. You couldn't even imagine what's happening
in Alaska. He is at the right place at the

(30:43):
right time. We can also look at Corpus Christi as well.
This is the previous administration. Congressman Klak got a great
opportunity to write beside President Trump at the time, they
just want to gather and President Trum asked him if
he wanted to ride back to DC in Air Force one.

(31:03):
That ride, that plane ride changed the destiny of Corpus
Christy forever. This is if you think about it, it's
the first port since the sixties that was actually funded
for the first time in infrastructure. Think about how important
the ports are to the United States, and we have
not invested. The United States government has not given any
money to infrastructure on our ports. And for the first

(31:26):
time since the sixties, they received full funding to deepen
and widen their port for the big the LCC ships.
Being in the right place at the right time is
important when we talk about energy because it's real hard
to get a president that gets it and to see
it moving in light speed. Changing different whether it's a
state or a port will take it. Let's talk about

(31:48):
powering the future study where green meets red. It highlights
the risk of relying on China for critical minerals. It
reminds me of President Trump. China, China, China, China, China,
what are the findings of this study and how can
we learn from it?

Speaker 3 (32:06):
Well, it's a lot of what we've been saying is
that we we document what are the rare earths that
we need and where they are found in America, as
well as the dominance China has on this market and
the vulnerabilities that we face as a country if we
don't start reversing this. You mentioned earlier that we saw
a lot of this during COVID, and in the height

(32:26):
of COVID, when we needed China to be our friend,
China said maybe not right, China withheld a lot of goods.

Speaker 5 (32:34):
Look at what we're going to We're going to fight hand.

Speaker 3 (32:39):
This is exactly They're not our friend. They're not They're not.
And so we want to make this clear that you know,
these are real important, big boy, big girl issues that
we need to talk about, right, but they're not the
ones that get attention. You just mentioned that great example
of the congressman, right, you are the congressman from Corporus Christi.

(33:01):
That port is a big deal, right because those are
your people, it's your area and you got it done.
So kudos to that congressman. But look at the majority
of congressmen. You know, they talk about thirty thousand foot
issues that make national news, that help them run for
higher office, that fundraise. Right, they don't talk about the
fact that, hey, I have a lot of them. Don't

(33:23):
talk about the fact that I have steel in my
portfolio and I need to protect steel mills. There was
a lot of Democrat congressmen from steel towns that watch
steel get destroyed. There's a lot of Democrat congressmen from
coal towns, or even a lot of Democrat members of
the House and Senate from oil and gas country. Right,
the second largest producer after Texas is New Mexico. It's

(33:45):
represented completely by Democrats who hate the fossil fuel industry.
Yet it is the number one industry in their state,
the number one driver of revenue for all the things
they care about, public school teachers and first responders and
heads start program, all of it is funded by oil
and gas. And yet not one of them, not Martin Heinrich,

(34:05):
the Senator, not any of their congressmen, none of them
would support the oil and gas industry. So there's this
odd disconnect that we see happening, and that's why we're vulnerable.
That's why we're vulnerable on rare earths, why we're vulnerable
on a lot of these technologies, because the people who
represent them are too busy talking about sexy issues, because

(34:30):
they want to be on MSNBC. They don't want to
get their hands dirty with something as mundane as expanding
a port. But Corpus Christy knows who got that done,
and they will love that guy forever. And that's what
it means to be a member of Congress. It's not,
you know, worrying about what's happening in some other state
or some other country. It's worrying about your people. It's

(34:51):
why you were elected. But god, few of them.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
Actually seek I am very fortunate to interview quite a few. Rather,
they are congressman senators who you know, I love to
talk to them because they actually are the supporters of energy,
which to me is just common sense policies, especially when
we talk about national security. We got to take a
quick break, Daniel. When we return, I want to get
back on the topic of rare earth minerals and how

(35:15):
the audience understand what kind of modern technology are we
talking about when we start losing these rare earth minerals,
and how does he come back and really start affecting us.
We talk about that a lot in different forms within
this first one hundred days. What it means to you.
I want to talk about what rare minerals should mean
to the listener and how it's going to affect you.
But let's take a quick break. You're listening to the

(35:36):
Energy Mix radio show and we'll be right back.

Speaker 4 (35:39):
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the Petroleum Club for a Western banquet featuring a VIP
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(36:01):
a mission to end childhood cancer. Get involved today by
registering at sky High for Kids dot org.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
And we're back. You're listening to the Energy Mix radio show.
My guest today is Daniel Turner, who is the founder
and executive director of Power of the Future. Daniel, I'm
very happy that your organization talks about just common sense
energy and how it applies. You know, we have to
think about when we elect elected officials. They're not necessarily

(36:35):
energy experts. Yet somehow or other, we expect that our
elected officials who are setting policy for the United States
of America shared and understand how these things work. And
it's kind of the dumbest thing when you look at
the policies that they choose to support. It's more about,
you know, staying on party lines than common sense and
what is in the best interest of the American people.

(36:57):
And I think Donald Trump and the administration has really
showed up is how really messed up we have been
when we look at how much money we were sending
you to other countries, how old is our data systems,
and how they're not connected. When we talk about social
Security is not talking to the irs. The irs is
not very antiquated systems alone. Sending millions of dollars to

(37:22):
dead people and people who hadn't even been born yet
are getting money from us. I mean, just the amount
of inability for our government to function in any rational
way is mind boggling. And this and we're not even
going to talk about immigration and what's happening there because
this is a show on energy. But let's go back

(37:42):
to rare Earth. Minerals because it is a matter of
are we going to live in insanity? Are we going
to live in a same world? And rare earth minerals
are one of them that we use modern technology for everything,
and we can take a choice. We have a choice,
right we are not going to be developing our own

(38:02):
rare earth minerals or sourcing from a country that likes us.
Then be prepared that that two hundred and fifty dollars
TV that you have which is a thirty two inch
or I think they're forty two inches are that cheap
or I don't know, still larger size instead of being
two ninety nine, you could be looking at twenty five
hundred dollars to three thousand dollars for the little TV.

(38:22):
I mean, your evs are not going to be able
to be affordable at all. It is it is going
to go to that insanity level. Or should we be
saying about it and realize that rather we source it
from a country that likes us, or we start developing
our own. It's kind of important to stay up with
modern technology. What are your thoughts on that?

Speaker 3 (38:42):
Yeah, without a doubt. I mean anytime we are dependent
on another country for anything, especially something as critical as
energy or metals or minerals. We are vulnerable. We're vulnerable
to everything from storms, right because we're trying to get
these things overseas, and Lord knows what happens with shipping lanes.

(39:02):
Were vulnerable to pirates. We're vulnerable to in geopolitical conflict.

Speaker 2 (39:09):
Right.

Speaker 3 (39:09):
We would never think that a country like Canada or
France would be hostile to us, But the new Prime
Minister of Canada the current Prime Minister of France have
said horrible things about America. A Menel Macron just a
couple of weeks ago said that friends should withhold any
funding of any or any investment in any American products.

(39:31):
I mean, these are our friends, So I don't mind
if we buy our you know, olive oil from Italy
or my cheese from France. But those aren't vital for
our country to survive. But if we're getting our metals,
our minerals, our energy, our steel from foreign countries, will
We're in bad shape militarily in terms of manufacturing and

(39:52):
just in terms of sovereignty. You know, we saw a
small example of this when the tariffs kicked off and
former Ime Minister Trudeau of Canada threatened to raise prices
on electricity going to Wisconsin, Michigan, and New York, and
a lot of people you know, interviewed me and said,
what do we think about this? And my question was,

(40:14):
why are Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York getting electricity from Canada?
That's the real question. The question is not how much
should we pay Canada? The question is why are we
buying it from Canada? And it shows you now these
states are vulnerable because who would have thought that one
day Canada would declare economic war on America but they did.

(40:35):
And so yeah, anytime we are dependent on any current,
I love Canada, but I don't love them as much
as I love America. And if we're getting anything that
we need vitally from a foreign country, we are at
that country's mercy, and America cannot afford to be at
anybody's mercy.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
The next question is going to be very interesting. Let
me just kind of cover what happened. So the two
day blackout in Spain and Portugal cast significant disruptions, like
you mentioned, from public transportation, internet connection and ATM machines,
meaning nobody's getting their money. Fifty million people fifty million
people were affected by this blackout, and the death toll

(41:19):
has not been released. If you know what it was,
I'm not saying it's catastrophic, but it had You know,
this is reports coming out of ap News that it
had serious social, serious social and economic consequences. Plus with
hospitals that rely on generators and the transport system grinded
to a halt, fifty million people stayed in the dark

(41:41):
for two days, Daniel. So here's the question. Energy independence
plays a national security role too. This is why, this
is why pay attention to what happened to Spain and Portugal.
What can America do here? What can we do to
actually strengthen our position as we are facing all these

(42:04):
different global challenges. I mean, we talk about rare earth minerals,
but it's so much more. You talked about when and
solar the issues and problems if we don't face that.
We should not be allowing our elective officials to drain
the strategic petroleum reserve for a political stunt. When that

(42:25):
strategic petroleum reserves, listen to the name of it strategic
because we need it. Should we have a major catastrophe,
a hurricane and or it also is a matter of
national security should somebody come on our soil and attack us,
we need that. It's really crazy that we don't think

(42:48):
about these things. But Spain and Portugal fifty million people
offline for two days. What would we do here? Would
there be looting? Would there be what are we going
to do?

Speaker 4 (42:57):
So?

Speaker 2 (42:57):
How do we strengthen this? People understand it is a
matter of national security, folks to have a very strong
energy policy. And I'm sorry, well, killing guests is the
solution and the answer as of bright new So, Daniel,
as we close the show, I want to give you
an opportunity to tell our audience your thoughts on You

(43:19):
talked about all the you know, all the comforts that
we have, but one thing that we have not discussed
is how important it is to think about our future
in the way of life or death. And what I
mean by that is when we look at how if
a country should come and bomb us or we should
have another at nine to eleven. But worse, these planes

(43:41):
and ships and all of our helicopters, black hawks that
are going to need be needed to go to war.
They are not going to run off of unreliables like
solar and wind. They're going to run off of good
old Petro in the way of oil and natural gas.
This is how wars are won, period, folks. And you
don't have enough energy, you are not a country that

(44:02):
is prosperous. Your thoughts on how we should be looking
at the future of our energy versus climate change? And
I get it, But when you're you know, you know,
life or death situation, you're not thinking about climate change.
I'll leave you with the last word. What are your
thoughts on that?

Speaker 3 (44:14):
Energy is everything? And I say that a lot. My
organization says that a lot. It's our economy, it's our
national security, it's our quality of life, it's our rights.
Energy is absolutely everything. And the more energy we have,
the more domestic, reliable of ford energy we have, the stronger,
the healthier, the more prosperous we are as a country.
So that's what I'm excited about for this administration.

Speaker 2 (44:38):
Listeners who want to follow your newsletter and join Power
the Future, where do they go?

Speaker 3 (44:42):
Yeah, Powerthfuture dot com, check us out or shoot me
an email if you want Daniel Atpowerthefuture dot com and
let me know your thoughts. And I appreciate you having
me on the program.

Speaker 2 (44:51):
Thank you, Thank you. Daniel for joining us again. We
look forward to having you back.

Speaker 1 (44:54):
The Energy Mix Radio Show is where we explore topics
that affect us all in the oil and gas industry.
Every week, our host will interview the movers and shakers
in this fast paced industry. You'll hear from industry experts,
elected officials, and many more on the Energy Mix Radio Show.